"Not joined up"

Two days of continual phoning and still no-one will answer the phone! With a 90 yo mother with dementia, which the hospital will not put on the front of her folder so I have to tell everyone we come into contact with, I need to consolidate two separate eye appointments (one for left eye, one for right eye) into one visit. They insist on posting appointments to her house so I don't find out about them until I get the reminder text, because I can;t be copied in on her letters (I have health and welfare POA but live 120 miles away). Getting mum to any appointment is a nightmare as it is, fighting your bureaucracy to make it less stressful for her is just so difficult. Please will you instigate the Butterfly scheme and also answer your phones! Just as an aside, they also managed to lose my mother on one visit because they showed her out of the door, even though my brother was waiting for her in the waiting room........

Responses

Dear “frustrated” We are very, very sorry for the continued problems you have experienced in contacting Ophthalmology. We are also sorry that you have not being informed of your mother’s appointments sooner. We are making some changes to our processes that will significantly improve the appointment process for patients. We hope this will make things easier all round. The incident you describe regarding your mother leaving unaccompanied is absolutely unacceptable. We sincerely apologise for that too. In order to ensure your feedback is fully addressed, we would be grateful if you could contact Martin Watts, Service Manager on 0116 258 5929. Thank you for taking the time to leave your feedback. It’s much appreciated. Kind regards Communications Team Leicester’s Hospitals